Elaine J. Coates & Wikipedia: Defining Subjectivity

Abstract

In May 2020, The University of Maryland, College Park’s Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) launched a project to create Wikipedia pages for archival collections that meet the website’s notability requirements. In order to do this, four female student workers created profiles and became Wikipedia editors, soon learning that 90% of Wikipedians are male. The male-female editor imbalance likely contributes to a site-wide underrepresented coverage of women-as-Wikipedia-subjects, particularly for women of color. This poster illustrates a case study of a notable woman of color, Elaine J Coates, getting removed from Wikipedia, likely due to her gender and race.